Method and system for advertisement using internet browser to insert advertisements

ABSTRACT

An electronic advertisement method and system for an Internet browser with a book-like page-based flipping interface. Full pages of electronic advertisements presented on the computer screen are possible without obstructing the viewing and reading of other contents. This benefits both the viewer as well as the advertiser. An advertisement matching/delivery system provides a novel method of inserting advertisements into content as well as a novel method for revenue sharing among the parties involved.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED PATENT DOCUMENTS

This application is a continuation of U.S. application Ser. No.11/565,854, filed on Dec. 1, 2006, which is a continuation of U.S.application Ser. No. 10/777,200 filed on Feb. 13, 2004, which is acontinuation of U.S. Pat. No. 6,725,203 issue date Apr. 20, 2004. Thecontents of each of these documents are incorporated herein byreference.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to a system and method for advertisingusing an Internet browser with a book-like, flipping page-basedinterface. The present invention takes advantage of the book-likeinterface to create a better advertisement-viewing/reading experiencefor the user on the one hand and more effective delivery ofadvertisements for the advertiser on the other hand. At the same time, anovel advertisement matching and delivery model in connection with thisinterface becomes possible and suggests new methods for matching up thecontent providers and advertisers, as well as methods for revenuesharing between the involved parties.

2. Discussion of the Background

Currently, documents available on the Internet are usually representedin the format of “hypertext.” Each hypertext “page” can be arbitrarilylong, and may or may not fit within one computer monitor screen. Pagesof hypertext are linked by “hyperlinks”—on each page of a hypertext,there might be one or more “links” in the form of pictures or wordswhich, when selected and clicked on (with, say, an input device such asa computer mouse) will cause the hypertext document to which thehyperlink is linked to appear on the monitor screen. In other words, thetext of the new page replaces the earlier hypertext page. This is themechanism by which, for example, the two most popular Internetbrowsers—Microsoft INTERNET EXPLORER® and NetscapeCOMMUNICATOR®—function.

In order to view a hypertext page that is longer and/or larger than onescreen, one or more mechanisms is provided that scroll the page up anddown (and/or left and right), or jump to a particular point in the page(through the use of, for example, a computer mouse coupled with scrollbars at the edges of the page displayed on the screen). In someembodiments, hyperlinks at one location in the hypertext page may pointto another location of the same page and, when the hyperlink is clicked,the destination section is brought into view.

However, it is well known in human-computer interface research thatthese hypertext/hyperlink assemblages suffer from a number of problems.Chief among them is the navigation problem—the reader of ahypertext/hyperlink assemblage covering several pages often becomes lostduring navigation of the hypertext pages. In other words, he/she oftendoes not know where the displayed section of the hypertext/hyperlinkassemblage is located relative to the entire content of thehypertext/hyperlink assemblage, what other content is present in thehypertext/hyperlink assemblage, where the other content is relative tothe total content of the hypertext/hyperlink assemblage, and how tochange the display from one section of the hypertext/hyperlinkassemblage to another section of the assemblage.

Another disadvantage described by Internet surfers (people who readInternet documents) is that it is difficult to return to a particularhypertext page despite the fact that “forward” and “back” buttons areavailable on the Internet browser (such as Microsoft's INTERNET EXPLORER® or Netscape's COMMUNICATOR ®). Since the hypertext pages are linked bya large number of links with no particular sequential or orderedmulti-level organization, these two simple commands make transitioningfrom one page to another difficult when the reader hasn't followed adirect link between those pages. In other words, the “forward” and“back” buttons presume a sequential forward-backward organization in anassemblage that lacks such organization. Thus, the Internet surfers areoften lost when trying to read a document with a complex organizationalstructure using only simple commands to proceed through the document.

On the other hand, sequential organization of information is found inthe traditional book—pages are linked sequentially one after another.Though mechanisms for jumping across many pages are available, such asby selecting a page from the side of the book and flipping to the page,the information in the book is still laid out in an orderly, sequentialmanner. Also, a reader/browser can jump anywhere in the book at any timein any random order while maintaining a good understanding of wherehe/she is in the book because, in the process of flipping and jumpingabout, the location information is captured by the thickness of the bookon both sides of a selected page, as well as during the flippingprocess. The flipping of the pages allows one to know the direction ofmovement through the document as well as how much one has moved throughthe document. The advantage of knowing where one is at any given timereduces the navigation problems if not eradicates them entirely.

Furthermore, one can also quickly and easily obtain an overview of allthe information in the book by flipping through the book. On the otherhand, a person is not only bound to become lost when browsing a1000-page hypertext/hyperlink assemblage. Furthermore, such anindividual will have difficulties obtaining an overview of theinformation content of such an assemblage.

Hence the major defects with hypertext - the navigation problems—are notpresent in the traditional book. One can browse a book of 1000 pages,and yet one can still comfortably know where one is, what else is in thebook, and how to move from one point to another.

As a result, people browsing large amounts of information on theInternet often prefer to print the hypertext pages out on paper and thenhold these sheets in their hands and browse through them much like theway they would browse through a book to look for and read information ofinterest.

The interaction between a reader/browser and printed material in a bookis a subtle and complicated activity. To begin with, the material in abook is presented in a sequential order, with a continuity of materialfrom page to page, and there is a hierarchical structure in the materialpresented (e.g., the material is organized into chapters, sections,subsections, etc.) because ideas in the material are related to eachother in some kind of conceptual hierarchy. The human perceptual systeminputs this data in a sequential manner, and after a book is read fromthe beginning to the end in a sequential fashion, the brain thenrecreates the conceptual hierarchy after viewing the material involved.However, very often one does not read a book (or input the materialinvolved) from the beginning to the end because (a) one wants to have anoverview of the material present; (b) one is searching for a particularitem of interest; or (c) one is interested in reading only particularportions of the book (in the case of, e.g., reading the manual tounderstand how to operate something). In these cases, one browsesthrough the subject book to find the material of unique interest.

Two basic things are achieved in the browsing process. First, thebrowser has a glimpse of what the contents of the book document are.Second, the browser has an idea of approximately where the items ofinterest are so that the browser can (a) return to look for them laterwhen needed, and (b) understand the relationships between the materialcurrently being viewed and other material (i.e., an understanding of thehierarchical structure involved). When browsing a book document, manyfinger-operations are required of the browser in order to flip throughthe pages. This mechanical act of flipping the pages, together with theinherent sequential order imposed by the pages, quickly allows thebrowser to have an understanding of the nature, location, andorganization of the material in a book.

Similarly, the vast amount of information available on the Internet canbenefit from the organizational structures normally found in a book,e.g., the sequential, page-by-page organization of information. Theseorganizational structures give rise to two major benefits: 1.navigational problems are greatly reduced—e.g., they allow the browserto know where a particular portion of text is relative to the entirecontent of a document, what other information exists in that document,and how to move from one section of information to another in the caseof browsing through hypertext pages, and 2. a good overview of thecontent of a document becomes easily available.

The sequential organization of information is not intended to replacethe hyperlink mechanism available in a hypertext document. Instead, itis complementary to it. Other than having the pages linked in asequential manner and accessible through a thickness display of the“book-like” representation, the hyperlink mechanism is retained andimproves the browsing process. The advantage of the hyperlink is thatthe users can move quickly from one portion of the content to anotherrelated portion of the content. However, in the book-like, page-basedsequential organization, when a hyperlink is selected and triggered, theprocess of going to the new portion of the content emulates the physicalprocess. For example, flipping animation showing a number of pagesmoving across the screen proportional to the amount of informationbetween the location of the hyperlink and the location pointed to by thehyperlink. This will aid users in knowing where the content they arereading and where the content that they will be reading is locatedwithin the hypertext/hyperlink assemblage and, combined with thetraditional processes of hyperlinking, will aid the process of searchingfor information.

The hypertext linking mechanism is in some ways an electronic version ofthe traditional index usually found at the end of a book. When one isinterested in a particular keyword or topic of interest, one may flip tothe index at the end and, from there, move to another page that containsrelated keywords or topics. This two-step process—first moving to theindex page then to the destination page—is achieved in one step with thehypertext linking mechanism. However, unlike physical paper books, theelectronic hypertext linking process does not require physical flippingof pages to move to a new portion of the content. Instead, theelectronic “goto” is effortless and instantaneous.

There are further differences between hypertext/hyperlink assemblagesand traditional book (or magazine) representations of documents that arerelated to the placement and type of advertisements therein. Inhypertext/hyperlink assemblages, advertisements that appear on the pagesare rarely, if ever, sizable relative to the size of the page or thesize of the viewable area on the computer screen. Therefore,advertisements most commonly appear as “banners” on the Web pages.However, in traditional paper books or magazines, advertisements oftenappear as full pages, and often as a succession of full pages. Eventhough advertisements on the pages of a traditional paper book ormagazine still hinder and obstruct the reading and browsing process,especially in the case of full-page advertisements, this is somehowmoderated by the book-like representation and tolerated by the users.This is in sharp contrast to advertisements in hypertext: full-page ormultiple consecutive full-page advertisements on a hypertext Web pageare anathema to many web readers.

The reason that full-page or multiple consecutive full-pageadvertisements are tolerable to readers of book-like representations isthat the flipping page, book-like interface (such as in the cases of thetraditional paper book and the interface of a special kind of flipping,book-like Internet browser described in co-pending patent applicationSer. No. 09/617,043, filed Jun. 14, 2000, Ser. No. 08/992,793, filedDec. 18, 1997, as well as a special kind of book-like human-computerinterface described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,064,384) creates a 3-dimensionaleffect. Users feel that they can simply flip these “obstructing” pagesaway very easily (either using their hands directly on the pages in thecase of the paper book or using an input controller such as a mouse inthe case of the special Internet browser described in copending patentapplication Ser. No. 09/617,043, filed Jun. 14, 2000, or using a specialflip-browsing controller described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,909,207)

Book-like representations thus provide a new method and system forelectronic advertisement. In contrast with this new method and system,traditional advertisements on scrolling or hypertext/hyperlinkassemblages are too restrictive from the point of view of theadvertiser.

Advertisement is a necessary component of modern commerce. Conflictingissues are involved in advertising and include the facts that 1. theadvertiser wants to deliver a message to the consumer, so the attentionof the consumer has to be captured, and 2. the advertiser must notpresent the advertisement in a way or to the extent that it hinders thereading/viewing activity of the consumer or annoys the consumer.

The current advertisement method on the Internet is very restrictive. Anadvertiser can only display “banner” ads, as explained earlier. This isdue to the kind of interface currently available on computers—theWindows interface which derives from the “desktop” metaphor whichbasically involves a presentation of a series of 2-dimensional “window”interfaces. On this kind of interface, the advertisers either have tocontend with a small banner, which does not quite satisfy the need todeliver a message effectively to the consumers, or they have to enlargethe banner which hinders the activities of the consumer and annoys theconsumer. Therefore, the parameters of the advertisement are verylimited and not necessarily effective.

Another current method of advertisement on the Internet uses a pop-upwindow whenever the user enters a certain Web page to view data. Thistype of pop-up window is ineffective for both the consumer and theadvertiser. From the point of view of the consumer, pop-up windows areannoying, especially when they are big. From the point of view of theadvertiser, pop-up windows are ineffective because the pop-up window,unlike the usual banner advertisements on the Web pages, are notdisplayed long enough for the consumer to absorb the message. Manyconsumers simply close the pop-up window or move the desired Webcontents into view and relegate the pop-up window to the background.Thus, the pop-up windows are commonly not viewed by the consumer for anyperiod of time.

Moreover, another problem with current browsers and browsing methodsrelates to their limited ability to identify, contact, and recruitadvertisers that will be inserting advertisements into the displayedcontent.

FIG. 14 is a table that illustrates various participants (along theabscissa) in the process of delivering various forms of content (alongthe axis) to a consumer, as well as their advertising practices. Forexample, in traditional books (first column), the book content iscreated by an author, “published” by a book publisher, and delivery of a“display” of this content (i.e., the book) is performed by a printer whomanufacturers the books and a distributor who, in one form or another,brings the printed book to the consumer. In traditional book publishing,the advertisement process is limited to only a few participants and isfurthermore unresponsive to changes in the marketing environment. Forexample, an author can insert advertisements into the content thatadvertise him/herself (such as the self-aggrandizing statements commonlyfound in the autobiographies of sports figures) or others (such as acommercial company that has paid the author to “place” a product withina particular manuscript). The book publisher commonly has almost noability to advertise within the content, but rather chooses to placeadvertisements before and/or after the content. Furthermore, theseadvertisements only relate to the publisher and commonly amount tonothing more than a publisher's name on the book jacket or on the titlepage, and possibly a listing of other books available from the samepublisher and/or author found before or after the content. Finally, theentities that deliver the content display to the consumer, namely theprinter and book distributor (such as a bookstore), have almost noability to insert advertisements regarding themselves and/or others intoor before/after the content.

A similar situation is found in regard to the participants in theprocess of delivering newspaper/magazine content to consumers (FIG. 14,second column), except for the fact that magazine/newspaper publishersactively advertise for others both within and before/after the content.Once again, the entities that deliver the content display have almost noability to insert advertisements.

In regard to the delivery of television/movies content to consumers(FIG. 14, third column), the entities that deliver the display havedeveloped methods of inserting advertisements before the content. Forexample, movie theaters commonly insert advertisements for themselvesand for local businesses prior to the showing of a film. Furthermore,the manufacturers of the display also insert advertisements prior to thestart of a film. An example is the advertisements for “DOLBY SURROUNDSOUND” commonly shown prior to commencement of the film. In these cases,the entities that deliver the content to the consumer have developed alimited ability to advertise before the delivery of the content.

Advertisement in Internet data transmission has not yet been developedeven to the extent known in the delivery of movie/television contentdisplays. As shown in the fourth column of FIG. 14, there are severalentities that participate in delivery of the content to the consumer. Aseparate web host can maintain and/or update a memory containing thecontent under the direction of a web publisher. An Internet serviceprovider can transmit the content data from the web host memory to aconsumer's site.

A browser producer can provide a browser that will decode and generateinstructions for displaying the content data at the consumer's site.Finally, a monitor or other output device can display the content underthe instructions of the browser.

The insertion of advertisements by each of these entities that deliverInternet content to the consumer is haphazard at best. For example, theweb host is entirely unknown to an individual who is accessing contentstored on the web host's computers. Internet service providers such asNETZERO place a banner advertisement across the top of the displayscreen. Thus, this banner is neither inserted into the actual contentnor targeted to the content being accessed, and furthermore retains theaforementioned problems of banner advertisements. Monitor manufacturersonly include a corporate logo located outside the content display area,and generate no direct advertising revenue thereby.

Advertisements recruited, selected, and displayed by a browser producerare likewise primitive. Both NETSCAPE NAVIGATOR and MICROSOFT INTERNETEXPLORER have limited advertisements to a title of the browser programand one or more corporate trademarks displayed at various locations onthe browser window. This prohibits the browser producers fromadvertising for others than themselves, from inserting theadvertisements within the displayed content, and from receiving revenuefor the advertisement of various products made by others.

Therefore, the inventor has identified a need for a novel system andmethod for electronic advertisement that can be integrated into anInternet browser. Moreover, the inventor has identified an Internetbrowser with a book-like interface such as that described in copendingpatent application Ser. No. 09/617,043, filed Jun. 14, 2000 or a specialkind of book-like human-computer interface described in U.S. Pat. No.6,064,384 that takes full advantage of the interface for the mosteffective delivery of advertisements to the users. The inventor hasfurthermore recognized that advertisements inserted by the browser canlead to different revenue sharing models.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

In view of the aforementioned short-comings of presently availableschemes for delivering electronic advertisements on the Internet, oneobjective of the present invention is to provide a novel method andsystem for electronic advertisement that is modeled after thetraditional paper book. These involve inserting pages of advertisementsamong the contents that are represented in a flipping book-like manner.The advertisements inserted in this manner do not obstruct or hinder thereading of the contents to an extent that will annoy the reader.

Another objective of the invention is to provide a novel method andsystem for inserting full-page, multiple full page, or nearly full-pageadvertisements in between pages of materials downloaded from theInternet.

Yet another objective of the invention is to provide a novel method andsystem for inserting advertisements either among the pages that belongto a single electronic book or to a Web site currently being browsedusing an Internet browser, or between pages belonging to differentelectronic books or Web sites.

A further objective of the invention is to provide a novel electronicadvertisement matching/delivery method and browser system that recruits,selects, and/or identifies advertisers, and matches them with contentproviders/authors through a advertisement portal site based on theclassification of the contents of a hypertext/hyperlink assemblage.

A yet further objective of the invention is to provide a novel methodand system for “dynamically” delivering and/or streaming advertisementsto users using a book-like Internet browser to browse information on theInternet.

Another objective of the invention is to provide a novel “static”advertisement delivery method and system where advertisements arepre-delivered and incorporated into the electronic books hosted on someWeb sites.

Yet another objective of the invention is to provide a novel “static”electronic advertisement request method and system which allowsusers/electronic book authors/content providers to specify the kind ofadvertisements they are looking for and other parameters of theadvertisements so that an automatic advertisement matching system canidentify the relevant advertisements to be incorporated into theelectronic books hosted on some Web sites.

A further objective of the invention is to provide a novel “static”electronic advertisement offer method and system which allowsadvertisers to specify the kind of advertisements they are offering (aswell as other parameters of the advertisements) so that an automaticadvertisement matching system can identify the relevant advertisementsto be offered to electronic book authors or other content providers.

A yet further objective of the invention is to provide an automaticadvertisement matching system and method that will automatically matchadvertisement requests and advertisement offers resident in a database.

Another objective of the invention is to provide a novel method andsystem for extending the existing electronic book format—the OEBformat—to encode the unique parameters associated with howadvertisements are to appear within an electronic book.

Yet another objective of the invention is to provide a privacy-ensuredmethod of dynamically streaming information to an Internet browser sothat his or her identity is not compromised.

A further objective of the invention is to provide a revenue sharingmethod and system for all parties involved in the novel advertisementmatching/delivery method and system.

A yet further objective of the invention is to provide a method andsystem for Web sites and HTML pages to provide a classification code fortheir contents to facilitate matching of advertisers with contentproviders.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

A more complete appreciation of the invention and many of the attendantadvantages thereof will be readily obtained as the same becomes betterunderstood by reference to the following detailed description whenconsidered in connection with the accompanying drawings, wherein:

FIG. 1A is a top perspective view of an exemplary Internet browsing bookdisplayed on a computer screen that is used to display informationdownloaded from the Internet;

FIG. 1B is a top perspective view of the exemplary Internet browsingbook displayed on the computer screen during the process of jumping anumber of pages ahead in the book;

FIG. 1C is a top perspective view of the exemplary Internet browsingbook displayed on the computer screen in the process of flipping to thenext page;

FIG. 1D is a top perspective view of the exemplary Internet browsingbook displayed on the computer screen during the process of flippingmany pages simultaneously;

FIG. 2A is a top perspective view of the exemplary Internet browsingbook just before the start of a browsing session before information isdownloaded from the Internet;

FIG. 2B is a sequence of top perspective views of the exemplary Internetbrowsing book in the process of downloading some new information fromthe Internet in response to the entry of a URL;

FIG. 2C is a sequence of top perspective views of the exemplary Internetbrowsing book in the process of downloading some new information fromthe Internet in response to the selection and activation of a hyperlinkon the page of the exemplary Internet browsing book;

FIG. 3A is a top perspective view of the exemplary Internet browsingbook after it has acquired a number of pages of Internet information;

FIG. 3B is a top perspective view of the exemplary Internet browsingbook showing a number of flipped open pages, some of which may containadvertisements;

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing the various components of an exemplaryadvertisement matching/delivery system on the Internet;

FIG. 5A is a diagram showing an exemplary Advertisement RequestInterface used for requesting for advertisements;

FIG. 5B is a diagram showing an exemplary Advertisement Offer Interfaceused for offering advertisements;

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing an exemplary format used in conjunction withour advertisement system for the representation and coding of bookparameters that is an extension to the existing OEB format;

FIG. 7 illustrates an alternate and/or complementary exemplary systemfor providing advertisements using an Internet browser;

FIG. 8 a-d illustrate exemplary data records for use in the currentsystem;

FIG. 9 illustrates a process flow according to a first embodiment of thepresent invention for insertion and display of an advertisement bybrowser software;

FIG. 10 illustrates a process flow according to a second embodiment ofthe present invention for insertion and display of an advertisement bybrowser software;

FIG. 11 illustrates a process flow according to a third embodiment ofthe present invention for insertion and display of an advertisement bybrowser software;

FIG. 12 illustrates a process flow according to a fourth embodiment ofthe present invention for insertion and display of an advertisement bybrowser software;

FIG. 13 illustrates an exemplary computer system upon which, forexample, many of the database systems illustrated in FIG. 7 can beimplemented; and

FIG. 14 is a table illustrating participants in bringing content to aconsumer, and known advertisement methods of those participants.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

Referring now to the drawings, wherein like reference numerals designateidentical or corresponding parts throughout the several views, and moreparticularly to FIG. 1A thereof which depicts one embodiment of theInternet browser interface. The information downloaded from the Internetis displayed on two pages as in an opened book. At this stage, a numberof Internet pages have been browsed and collected in the “Internetbrowsing book” 100. The amount of material before and after the currentpages (the pages in view) is shown as varying thicknesses on the leftand right sides (101 and 102), respectively (as well as the left andright bottom edges (103 and 104)), of the book. On the left and rightthicknesses (101 and 102) are shown a number of bookmarks (105-107) thatbookmark some of the pages that have been viewed earlier. There arethree types of bookmarks on these thicknesses. They are page-bookmarks105, annotation bookmarks 106, and finger bookmarks 107. These bookmarksare described in detail in copending application Ser. No. 09/617,043,filed Jun. 14, 2000. On the bottom thicknesses (103 and 104) are shown anumber of keyword bookmarks 108. A URL (Universal Resource Locator)field 109 above the browsing book 100 allows URL addresses to beentered.

In order to allow the user to select any desired page, jump cursors 110and 111 are provided on the left and right thickness (101 and 102). Theuser, using a mouse or other control, can move the left or right jumpcursors (110 and 111, respectively) up and down the left or rightthicknesses (101 and 102, respectively). The page number may appear onthe tag of the jump cursor to display the page selected by the jumpcursor. When the user has decided to jump to a certain page using thejump cursor to select that page, he/she can use the mouse or other inputdevice to activate the jump.

FIG. 1B depicts the display when a selected page in the browsing book100 is jumped to. This jump may have been either activated, e.g., by theselection of a bookmark (e.g., page-bookmark 105) or by the jump cursor(e.g., jump cursor 110 or 111). The thickness 112 between the pageoriginally in view 113 and the page jumped to 114 is shown moving acrossthe computer screen in continuous animation, much like in a physicalbook.

FIG. 1C depicts the display when one page 120 in the browsing book 100is being flipped. The page 120 is shown bending and moving across thecomputer screen to reveal the underlying page 121. FIG. 1D depicts thedisplay when, because of an increased rate of moving through thebrowsing book 100, more than one page (122-125) is moving across thecomputer screen at the same time. The user can then select to freeze allthe pages in motion, if desired. FIG. 2A-2C depict example display whenthe browsing book 100 is created. FIG. 2A shows the beginning of anInternet browsing process when a browsing session is launched. A book200 is created and displayed. At this time the book consists only of thefront cover 201 and back cover 202.

FIG. 2B depicts what happens when a URL 203 (Universal ResourceLocator—the address of a “Web page”) is entered into the field 204 onthe top of the display and activated. The front cover 201 of thebrowsing book 200 is flipped open, revealing a new page 205 in the book200. On the new page 205, the web page 206 of the URL 203 is displayed.The left hand page (210) is empty.

A number of hyperlinks (207-209) are available on the web page 206. FIG.2C depicts what happens when hyperlink 207 on the web page 206 (FIG. 2B)is selected and activated. The page 205 flips to reveal two more newpages (211 and 212) added to the browsing book 200. On page 211, thecontents of the Web page 213 pointed to by the hyperlink 207 (FIG. 2B)are displayed. The left side of the Internet browsing book 200 nowindicates a relatively small thickness because of the limited number ofpages added to the left side. As more contents are brought into theInternet browsing book 200, the book acquires increased thicknesses onboth sides.

FIG. 3A shows a situation in which a sizable Internet browsing book 300(as reflected in the thicknesses 330 and 331) has been created throughthe browsing process. Increasingly more contents have been brought intothe browsing book through various mechanisms. Copending patentapplication Ser. No. 09/617,043, filed Jun. 14, 2000, describes a numberof methods and systems by which the new contents can be added to thebrowsing book. FIG. 3A depicts two pages 301 and 302 that are currentlyvisible. The contents 303 are displayed on the left page 301 and thecontents 304 are displayed on the right page 302. These contents 303 and304 may contain advertisements. The advertisements can appear either asa banner smaller than the boundaries defined by the contents 303 and304, or they fill the entire contents 303 and 304 by themselves. Theadvertisement pages can also be on one of the pages 301 and 302 or onboth pages (301 and 302), and may even cover further, successive pages.

FIG. 3B shows a flipped-open browsing book 300 that contains contents303, 304, 307, and 308 displayed over the pages 301, 302, 305 and 306,respectively. Some of the contents 311 and 312 are displayed on the rearside of pages 302 and 305, respectively. The advertisement contents mayappear over more than the two pages 301 and 302 and/or on all the pages301, 302, 305, 306, 311 and 312. The contents may fully occupy thesepages, or they may occupy only a portion of these pages.

Advertisements may also be displayed on many single pages, pairs ofpages, or groups of pages throughout the entire browsing book 300. Theadvertisements may fully occupy these pages or occupy smaller footprintswithin these pages. Naturally, combinations of full-page and smallerfootprint displays are possible.

In addition to the fact that advertisements can appear as full-page(s),another advantage of an Internet browsing book is that advertisementscan be selected not only by the Web site or document content providers,but also by the intermediary that delivers the contents to thereader/browser. For example, in FIG. 3B, contents 303 and 304 (appearingon pages 301 and 302 respectively) may be contents created by Company Xaccessed earlier by the browsing book 300 through a URL address or ahyperlink somewhere on the browsing book 300. On these pages (301 and302), banner or full-page advertisements could be displayed by CompanyX, where Company X might have collected advertisement fees from yetother companies who associated these advertisements with Company X′scontents 303 and 304. Then, for example, at a later position in thebrowsing book, contents 312 and 308 (on the back of page 305 and thefront of page 306, respectively), contents created by Company Y accessedby the browsing book 300 through a URL address or a hyperlink on some ofthe pages of the browsing book 300 might be found. Again, within oraround these contents 312 and 308, advertisements by Company Y regardingtheir own products (or yet other companies' products where Company Y hadcollected advertisement payments from these other companies) might befound. Furthermore, between page 302 and the back of page 305, contents311 and 307 that include advertisements delivered by a server that isspecialized in feeding advertisement contents to the browsing book (say,Advertisement Server 411 in FIG. 4) may be found. Thus, within a single“book” display, advertisements from several different sources arepresent, even when those sources play different roles in the generationand presentation of the contents of the book.

Alternatively, contents 303, 304, 312 (found on the back of page 305)and 308 together contain contents belonging to Company X or Author V,for example, and advertisements can be inserted between these pages-contents 307 and 311 (back of page 302). These contents (303, 304, 312,and 308) that belong to a given company or a given author such asCompany X or Author V can either be loosely related HTML pages or pagesthat are bound together in a book format, e.g., the OEB (Open ElectronicBook) format. The advertisement insertions (307 and 311) can thus beinserted either between these HTML pages or inside the OEB book.

Therefore, one parameter which can be used to characterize the deliveryof advertisements is whether the advertisement is inserted betweendifferent books (e.g., OEB books or pages belonging to the same Website) or within the same book or pages belonging to the same Web site,as depicted in FIG. 3 and described above.

FIG. 4 depicts an Advertisement Matching/Delivery system 400 forlocating and delivering advertisements into a browsing book. Considerthat the browsing book software 401 is running on a computer at anInternet browsing book site 402. The user who is running the Internetbrowsing book 401 requests a document/book 405 in the OEB format. Thisrequest is transmitted through the Internet 403 (through, say, a datalink 407) to one of the book sites 404, and the desired book is returnedfrom one of the book sites 404 to the Internet browsing book 401. TheOEB Book 405 may contain a classification code 406 that describes thecontents of the Book 405. The browsing book software 401 then uses theclassification code 406 to request one or more relevant (e.g., targeted)advertisement(s) from the Advertisement Server 411 in the AdvertisementPortal Site 410 through the data link 408.

Upon the request from the Browsing Book 401 for advertisements, theAdvertiser Search Engine 412 can go to Advertiser Sites 413 to searchfor relevant advertisements (for example, based on the classification ofthe book 406), through the data link 409. Alternatively, an advertisersite database 414, created in the advertisement portal site 410, canprovide data describing a relevant advertisement to the advertisementserver 411. The advertisement server 411 thus can retrieve one or moreadvertisements from the advertisement site database 414 based on theclassification of the book 406 and deliver the retrievedadvertisement(s) to the browsing book 401.

This process is Internet browsing book-driven advertisementmatching/delivery where the request for advertisements/advertisers comesfrom the Internet browsing book site 402. This process is also known asthe Dynamic Advertisement Streaming Method.

At the advertisement portal site 410, there is also a advertiser/clientregistration engine 422 that allows advertiser sites 413 and book sites404 to pre-register themselves onto the advertiser site database 414 andthe book site database 421, respectively. The advantage ofpre-registration is that these book sites and advertiser sites have,e.g., priority of being offered as a candidate when a request for anadvertiser or book of a certain nature or classification is made. TheAdvertiser Site Database 414 and Book Site Database 421 may containvarious parameters associated with advertisements offered by theadvertiser from the advertiser sites 413 and advertisements requested bythe book/content author from book sites 404, respectively. Theseparameters will be described shortly.

Either in addition to or in substitution for the above dynamicadvertisement streaming method where the advertisement is dynamicallydelivered to the browsing book depending on the browsing book's contentsand requests, a “Static Advertisement Delivery Method” whereadvertisements are pre-delivered and incorporated into the books 405 atthe book sites 404 can also be used.

The “static” advertisement delivery method can be further divided intotwo methods: the “pull” method and the “push” method. In the pullmethod, the book site 404 initiates the request for advertisements. Oncethe request is initiated, the database is search and presumably arelevant advertisement is found. The advertisement matching process canbe manual, e.g., performed by a book site 404 employee searching theadvertiser site database 414 in the advertisement portal 410 or otheravailable sources of advertiser site 413 data, or automated, e.g., thebook site 404 employee enters the request for an advertisement byspecifying, for example, a number of parameters, such as the name of thespecific advertisement (e.g., a Coca Cola® advertisement), or the nameof the category of advertisement (e.g., a golf advertisement), time ofdisplay of advertisement on the book sites' book 405, length of displaytime, dimensions of advertisement, position in the book 405 in which itwill appear, rates offered, etc.

FIG. 5A shows an exemplary advertisement request (Pull) interface 501 ona computer that can be used to initiate a static advertisement “pull”process. A specific advertisement type 502 and/or category 503 can bespecified. The name of the specific advertisement 504 and/or name of thecategory 505 can also be specified. Other things that may be specifiedinclude, e.g., time of display of advertisement 506, the length ofdisplay time 507, the dimensions of the advertisement 508, the positionof the advertisement in the book 509, rates offered 510, etc. After datahave been entered, pressing the GO button 511 initiates theadvertisement search and matching process on the advertiser sitedatabase 414.

In the “push” method, the advertiser initiates the advertisement offerprocess. Again, the advertisement matching process can be manual, e.g.,performed by an advertiser site 413 employee searching the book sitedatabase 421 in the advertisement portal 410 or other available sourcesof book site 404 data, or automatic—e.g., the advertiser site 413employee enters the offer of an advertisement by specifying one or moreparameters, such as, e.g., the name of the specific advertisement (e.g.,Coca Cola advertisement), or the name of the category of advertisement(e.g., a golf advertisement), time of display of advertisement on thebook sites' books 405, length of display time, dimensions ofadvertisement, position in the book 405 in which it will appear, ratesrequested, etc.

FIG. 5B shows an exemplary advertisement offer (push) interface 531 on acomputer that can be used to initiate a static advertisement “push”process. A specific advertisement 532 and/or type of category 533 can bespecified. The name of the specific advertisement 534 and/or name of thecategory 535 can also be specified. Other things that can be specifiedinclude, e.g., time of display of advertisement 536, length of displaytime 537, dimensions of the advertisement 538, position in book 539,rates requested 540, etc. After data have been entered, pressing the GObutton 541 initiates the advertisement search and matching process atthe book site database 421.

During the search for an advertisement match, the search process canreach beyond the advertiser site database 414 or the book site database421. In the process of searching for an advertiser, the advertiser sitesearch engine 412 can be activated to search for matching advertisers insome advertiser sites 413 through the data link 409. In the process ofsearching for a relevant book 405, the book site search engine 420 canbe activated to search for matching books 405 in some book sites 404through the data link 415.

Alternatively, the selection and matching of advertisements can beinitiated by an automatic advertisement matching engine 430 as depictedin FIG. 4. Unlike in the case of the advertisement request or offerprocesses as depicted in FIG. 5A and 5B, which is triggered by the GObuttons (511 or 541) and carried out on the existing advertiser sitedatabase 414 or book site database 421, respectively, the automaticadvertisement matching engine 430 carries out matching between data inthe advertiser site database 414 and book site database 421 as and whennew data are added to them. That is, in an earlier session after anadvertisement request process (FIG. 5A) or an advertisement offerprocess (FIG. 58) was carried out, the book site database 421 or theadvertiser site database 414 respectively may have captured thespecified advertisement parameters (502-510 or 532-540). Now, when newadditional data are added into the advertiser site database 414 or booksite database 421, the automatic advertisement matching engine 430 willinitiate a matching process between the two databases (414 and 421) andreport to the book sites 404 or the advertiser sites 413 as and when anynew matches are found.

In order to control the appearance of advertisements on the pages of thebooks 405 as and when they appear as a browsing book 401 on the Internetbrowsing book site 402, some specifications are needed. One format thatthe books 405 on the book sites 404 can appear in is the OEB (OpenElectronic Book) format defined by an industrial consortium. FIG. 6depicts the format specification. At the top level there is a book-levelspecification 6001 that specifies the pages of the book 6011 as well assome parameters associated with the book 6021. The specification of thepages of the book 6101 contains some parameter specifications 6111 and6131, among which is the specification for advertisement pages 6121. Theentry 6121 defines whether the page is an advertisement page. It alsohas a pointer 6201 that points to a specification of the advertisement:i.e., whether it is static 6211 or dynamic 6221 (as described above,static advertisements are pre-incorporated into the books 405 beforethey are downloaded and viewed while dynamic advertisements are streamedinto the browsing book 401 as they are being viewed on the Internetbrowsing book site 402), its category 6231 (if it is a static page, thecategory of the advertisement and if it is a dynamic page, the categoryit will accept), and its specific name 6241 (e.g., “Coca-Cola®”—if it isa static page, the name of the advertisement and if it is a dynamicpage, the name of the advertisement it will accept.)

The dynamic advertisement streaming method described above, thoughfeasible technically, may raise a privacy issue. In this method, theInternet browsing book 401 has to announce to the advertisement server411 that it is viewing some contents of a certain nature based on theclassification code 406 that it sends, possibly also revealing theidentity of the person browsing with the browsing book 401. In order toprotect the identity of the viewer from the advertisement portal 410, amethod called “Privacy-ensured Dynamic Advertisement Streaming” can beused. The two major systems components for implementing this method areillustrated in FIG. 4. as data transfer links 450 and 451 on the onehand, and advertisement relay server 455 on the other.

In this privacy-ensured method, the Internet browsing book 401, insteadof communicating directly with the advertisement portal 410 directlythrough the link 408, communicates with it instead through the links 450and 451, and through the advertisement relay server 455 which istypically resident on a book site 404.

The advertisement relay server 455 serves to shield the identity of theviewer at the Internet browsing book site 402 from the advertisementportal 410. The advertisement relay server 455 serves to identify theInternet browsing book site 402 that may have requested a book 405 witha certain classification 406 through the link 451, and then the serverwill request for an appropriate advertisement from the advertisementportal site 410 through the link 450. The identity of the viewer at theInternet browsing book site 402 may be known to the book site 404 whenthe browsing book site 402 requests a book 405 to be downloaded from thebook site 404, but the advertisement relay server 455 need not revealthis information to the advertisement portal 410. Hence this methodprotects the privacy of the viewer at the Internet browsing book site402 from the advertisement portal 410.

With this privacy protection mechanism, the identity of the can beprotected even during use of our advertisement matching/delivery system400.

Advertisement revenue can potentially be shared between three parties:the book sites 404, the advertiser sites 413 (if these advertiser sites413 are in turn brokering the original or other sources ofadvertisements), and the advertisement portal site 410. The revenuearrangements can be based on either pre-advertised revenue arrangementson the book sites 404 and advertiser sites 413 or pre-advertised revenuearrangements on the book site database 421 or the advertiser sitedatabase 414. These pre-advertised arrangements may includespecifications relating to how much revenue is to be shared and how therevenue is to be shared among relevant parties for example, as afunction of the advertisement arrangement (such as, e.g., whether it isa within book/Web site's pages advertisement or between book/Web sites'pages advertisement, or when and for how long or in what exact formsthese advertisements would appear, etc.). If a book site 404 or anadvertiser site 413 is contacted by either the book site search engine420 or the advertiser site search engine 412 that has no pre-advertisedrevenue arrangement with their sites, a message can be sent to theowners of these sites to request advertisement arrangements, or to addtheir information including the advertisement and revenue arrangementsonto the advertisement portal site's 410 advertiser site database 414 orbook site database 421.

Typically, the book site 404 would receive a smaller proportion of theadvertisement revenue if the advertisement is to appear betweendifferent books/Web sites' pages than if the advertisement were toappear within a particular book/Web site's pages. This is because anadvertisement that appears within a book is deemed to benefit more fromthe book's contents than otherwise. However, market forces of supply anddemand will dictate the final arrangement.

Book sites 404, in general, can also include a typical company's or anindividual's Web site that contains loosely related HTML pages thattogether comprise a “Web book.” Alternatively, a company/individualcould have re-authored its/his/her web site into a book form “Web book”(OEB format, for example) that can be browsed with the Internet browsingbook 401. The Internet browsing book 401, as described in copendingpatent application Ser. No. 09/617,043, filed Jun. 14, 2000, candownload and display loose HTML pages as well as books in an extendedOEB format.

In order to take advantage of the advertisement matching system's 400ability to effectively match advertisements over the Internet, theclassification code 406 resident in the electronic books 405 is needed.However, to stream advertisements between pages being viewed on theInternet browsing book 401 that are not pages that are part of someelectronic books 405 but are instead “loose” HTML pages from one or moreWeb sites, some classification information of the contents of those Websites is needed. This classification information can be in the form of aclassification code resident on the Web server hosting the Web contentsof a Web site, or resident on the HTML pages themselves (but perhapsmade invisible). For the latter, there is a need to extend the HTMLformat for the classification code to remain invisible to viewers of theHTML pages involved.

An alternate and/or complementary system for providing advertisementsusing a browser is illustrated in FIG. 7. More particularly, the systemshown in FIG. 7 can provide targeted advertisements using a browser. Amore complete description of predictive targeting and marketing isgiven, e.g., in “The Direct Marketing Handbook,” Edward L. Nash, ed.,McGraw-Hill, New York, 1992, the entire contents of which areincorporated herein by reference.

The network structure of FIG. 7 will include at least one browserinteraction site 630 that, in preferred embodiments, is connected by wayof an Internet network 620 to an advertisement database system 610, atleast one content database system 623, and, in some embodiments, anadvertisement broker database system 640 and/or at least one individualadvertiser database system 650. In alternate embodiments, the network620 can be implemented either as any other type of communications ortelecommunications network. For example, the network 620 may be a localarea network, a wide area network, a virtual private network, and/or aconnection via a public switched telephone network. In an exemplaryembodiment, the network 620 includes a number of connection modalities,including a cable-modem connection, a DSL connection, a dial-up modemconnection, and/or other suitable connection mechanisms.

The processors 611, 621, 631, 641, and 651 are used for coding anddecoding data transmitted over network 620, controlling reading andwriting of data in associated memories (e.g., 612, 622, 642, 652), andanalyzing the data in those memories. Processor 631 is furthermoreconfigured to received content request information from content requestdevice 632, and to cause content display device 633 to display selectedcontent. The processors 611, 621, 631, 641, and 651 can be any processorconfigured for high volume data transmission and performing asignificant number of mathematical calculations in processingcommunications (possibly as a webserver), database searches, andcomputational algorithms. A conventional personal computer orworkstation with sufficient memory and processing capability may beconfigured to act as processors 611, 621, 631, 641, and 651. A PENTIUMIII microprocessor such as the 1 GHz PENTIUM III for the SC 242manufactured by Intel Inc., a Motorola 500 MHz PowerPC G4 processor, andthe Advanced Micro Devices 1 GHz AMD ATHLON processor may all be used asprocessors 611, 621, 631, 641, and 651. The memories 612, 622, 642, 652can be any sort of processor-accessible data medium, including but notlimited to any type of disk including floppy disks, optical disks,CD-ROM, magneto-optical disks, ROMs, RAMs, EPROMs,

EEPROMs, flash memory, magnetic or optical cards, or any type of mediasuitable for storing electronic data.

Browser interaction site 630 includes a content request device 632 and acontent display device 633, both electrically connected to processor631. The browser interaction site 630 is designed to be operated by anindividual and, in some embodiments, maintain the identification of theindividual in secrecy. Content request device 632 can be any of a numberof input devices. Examples of suitable embodiments include keyboards,touch screens, computer mouses, bar code readers, magnetic readers(including strip, disk, and tape readers), smart card readers, pressuresensors, motion detectors, electromagnetic receivers, voltmeters, heatsensors, and other transducers capable of being interfaced with adigital processor and that will transduce a consumer's requestinformation. Content display device 633 is most commonly a computermonitor, but can also include the dedicated and/or specialized displayssuch the book-like human-computer interface described in U.S. Pat. No.6,064,384, the contents of which being incorporated herein by reference.

The advertisement database system 610 is commonly owned and/or operatedby the supplier of the browser software. This may be a “first stop” forthe browser software when content is requested, and serves to providethe browser software with targeting information, financial informationand record keeping, and the actual advertisements themselves to beinserted by the browser software into the displayed content. Memory 612of the advertisement database system 610 can include any of a number ofdifferent tables containing associated data records. Illustrativeexamples such tables are shown as tables 612 a-612 d, although othergroupings are possible within the scope of the present invention.Advertiser table 612 a stores advertiser information such as, forexample, a listing of the advertisements of the particular advertiser,targeting information regarding the desired content for insertion of theadvertiser's advertisements, contract information regarding theadvertiser, payment information regarding the advertiser, times andconditions for displaying certain advertisements of the advertiser, andeven, in some embodiments, specific advertisement data. Advertisementtable 612 b includes the advertisement data relating to individualadvertisements and/or various parameters related to their display,billing, and/or other factors. This information also includes images,text, and/or sound files that form the advertisements. Advertisementtable 612 b can thus contain much of the same information regardingparticular advertisements with or without including any informationregarding the advertiser. For example, advertisement table 612 b caninclude targeting information regarding the desired content forinsertion of the particular advertisements, contract informationregarding the particular advertisement, payment information regardingthe advertisement, and/or times and/or conditions for displaying theadvertisement. The illustration of the tables 612 a and 612 b withoverlapping data is intended to display alternate method of storing,accessing, and analyzing the same information in memory 612. Theadvertisements stored in advertisement table 612 b can either beprenegotiated for display in certain content at certain rates, or theycan simply be stored for pending negotiations with an advertiser thatmay or may not be based upon a display within a particular content.

Continuing with the illustrative development of various dataorganization schemes, targeting information table 612 c can storetargeting information in tables separate from the storage of theadvertisement data itself. This data can include targeting informationsuch as advertisement classifications that relate to the desired contentinto which the advertisement is preferably inserted, desired demographiccharacteristics of readers likely to be accessing certain content, orother information related to the targeting of the advertisements.Targeting information table 612 c can also store information related totargeting information of various content and/or extraction of targetinginformation from content. For example, if a content provider does notprovide content targeting information regarding their particularcontent, then targeting information table 612 c can include thisinformation for access by the browser software when a particular contentsuch as a web site is accessed. In this way, a browser software mayinsert targeted advertisements into content without the contentprovider's acquiescence. For example, assume that an online newspaperdoes not wish to provide demographic information regarding their contentin HTML format so that a web-browser software can insert advertisements.Targeting information table 612 c can include (approximate or actual)demographic information regarding the online newspaper. This informationcan be acquired, for example, by contacting the online newspaper'sadvertising department for the relevant demographic information, or itcan be extracted from the content itself. For example, a Flesch-KincaidGrade Level score for the content can be determined automatically (by,e.g., the browser or a maintainer of the advertisement database system610) and used to assign some demographic characteristics to the content.Alternatively, the document can be searched and the occurrence rate ofcertain keywords can be used to assign demographic characteristics tothe content. For example, frequent occurrence of the word “ninja” in thecontent might indicate a reader demographic weighted toward pre-teen orteenage males, while frequent occurrence of the word “yacht” mightindicate a different reader demographic. Alternatively, the demographicof the advertisements inserted by the content providers themselves canbe used to ascertain the reader demographic of a certain content.

Financial records table 612 d can include information related to thecosts and/or payments associated with the display of a certainadvertisement. For example, financial records table 612 d can includevarious weights associated with certain demographic characteristics thatcan be used to generate a cost of displaying an advertisement that isparticular to a particular content. For example, the cost of displayingan advertisement for a sports car in content commonly accessed by 20-30year old males with a college education during the spring might behigher than the cost of displaying an advertisement to 20-30 year oldfemales with only a high school diploma in the winter. Individualweights could be assigned to individual demographic characteristics ofthe typical readers of certain content, such as education level, income,age, race, gender, time of year, occupation, and/or other factors. Inthis way, a sliding cost scale that considers many demographiccharacteristics together or individually can be generated.

Financial records table 612 d can also include information such aswhether the advertiser has a limit on the amount that the advertiser iswilling to spend on advertisements and accounts payable information forthe particular advertiser.

Content database system 623 may be a third party site, or aconglomeration of third party sites, that provide content to readers.Content database system 623 may include one of more content tables 622 athat store the content itself, as well as a targeting information table622 b that may contain information related to the reader demographic ofthe content in content table 622 a. Naturally, these two tables can becombined or otherwise subdivided. The targeting information table 622 bcan also be omitted in certain embodiments and such informationextracted from the content or otherwise obtained as described above.

In the content of the browser that displays content in the form of abook, content database system 623 may only provide a portion of thetotal content displayed in a single book representation. For example,two separate websites joined by a hyperlink may form two separatecontent database systems 623. Although the content of a single bookrepresentation may originate from these two individual websites, theadvertisements inserted within and/or between the content in the bookrepresentation can draw targeting information from one and/or both ofthese websites.

Individual advertiser database system 650 provides a venue for anindividual advertiser to make an advertisement, as well as demographicinformation regarding the target population of the advertisement,available to a web-browser that is capable of inserting advertisements.Alternatively, if this information has already been stored at anadvertisement database systems 610, the individual advertiser databasesystem 650 can be used to monitor and/or approve display of a storedadvertisement within a particular content. This venue may beparticularly useful when an advertiser has not prenegotiated placementof an advertisement with the operator of the advertisement databasesystem 610. The memory 652 of such an individual advertiser databasesystem 650 can include data regarding one or more advertisements in anadvertisement table 652 a, and targeting information in a targetinginformation table 652 b. Naturally, these two tables can be combined orotherwise subdivided. Advertisement table 652 a can include the actualadvertisement itself in the form of an image, sound file, and/or text tobe inserted into the content by the browser software. Advertisementtable 652 a can also include various information related to how, when,and where the advertiser wants the advertisement inserted, billinginformation for the advertiser, and/or other financial information. Forexample, the advertisement table 652 a can thus constitute a simplerepository for advertisements that have prenegotiated insertionlocations/costs, etc., or it can constitute a “request for display”whereby a browser that is currently displaying content contacts theadvertisement site to see if the advertiser is interested in having(i.e., willing to pay to have) the stored advertisement inserted in thedisplayed content. Targeting information table 652 b can include variousweights associated with certain demographic characteristics of thereaders of content and/or a list of content database systems 623 thatstore content in content table 622 a into which the advertiser isinterested in having an advertisement from advertisement table 652 ainserted.

An alternate form or storing and/or locating appropriate advertisementsmay include an advertisement broker having an advertisement brokerdatabase system 640. The advertisement broker database system 640substantially includes the same information as the individual advertiserdatabase system 650, but for a plurality of individual advertisers. Thisarrangement may remove the need for a browser software to searchmultiple individual advertiser database systems 650 before locating asuitable advertisement. Thus, several individual advertisers wouldprovide their advertisements and/or targeting information to the broker,who would locate a suitable advertisement when contacted by the browsersoftware. Alternatively, the advertisement broker database system 640can monitor and/or approve of insertion of an advertisement alreadystored in the advertiser database system 610.

FIGS. 8 a-d illustrate exemplary data records for use in the currentsystem. FIG. 8 a illustrates an exemplary data record illustratingtargeting information relating to a particular advertisement, such asthat found in targeting information tables 612 c, 622 b, 642 b, and 652b of FIG. 7. Field 710 c includes an advertisement name or otheridentification information that can be used to identify an advertisementboth to the browser software and to the advertiser when a bill ispresented. Fields 710 d-f include one or more demographic factorsrelevant to the advertisement identified in field 710 c. The demographicfactors can include, for example, weightings used to calculate an amountto be paid for inserting the advertisement into the content identifiedin field 710 c, times the advertisement should be displayed, or evendemographic information that would indicate that an advertisement shouldnot be displayed ever to that particular demographic group.

FIG. 8 b illustrates an exemplary data record illustrating demographicinformation relating to a particular content such as that found intargeting information tables 612 c and 622 b of FIG. 7. Field 720 cincludes a content name or other identification information that can beused to identify the content both to the browser software and to theadvertiser when a bill is presented. Fields 720 d-f include data relatedto the particular demographics of the content. As discussed above, thisinformation can be provided by the content provider in a targetinginformation table 622 b, or it can be generated/extracted by theadvertisement database system 610 and placed in a targeting informationtable 612 c. The demographic information of fields 720 d-f can relate toany of a number of demographic characteristics, including but notlimited to the gender, age, education level, interests, occupation,geographic location, income level, and/or spending habits of theindividuals who commonly are interested in the content identified infield 720 c. By matching the demographic factors of FIG. 8 a with thedemographic information of FIG. 8 b, a processor can automaticallyidentify targeted advertisements for insertion by the browser software.For example, summing the product of a numerical descriptor of thedemographic information in fields 720 d-f of FIG. 8 b with numericalweightings of the relative importance of the particular demographicinformation stored in fields 710 d-f of FIG. 8 a will provide anapproximate idea of how targeted an advertisement will be to thedemographic of a particular content.

FIG. 8 c illustrates an exemplary data record illustrating advertisementinformation relating to a particular advertiser such as that found in anadvertiser table 612 a of FIG. 7. Field 730 c includes an advertisementname or other identification information that can be used to identifythe content both to the browser software and to the advertiser when abill is presented. Fields 730 d-g include data related to the individualadvertisements of the particular advertiser identified in field 730 c.Fields 730 d-g may include other information related to the individualadvertisements. For example, demographic factors related to the desiredviewers of a particular advertisement may be included in each of thefields 730 d-g. Exemplary field 730 h includes billing informationrelated to the particular advertiser.

FIG. 8 d illustrates an exemplary data record illustrating advertisementinformation relating to a particular advertisement such as that found inadvertisement tables 612 b, 642 a, and 652 a of FIG. 7. Field 740 cincludes an advertisement name or other identification information thatcan be used to identify the content both to the browser software and tothe advertiser when a bill is presented. Fields 740 d-g include datarelated to the advertisement itself. This data may include the targetinginformation described in FIG. 8 a and/or it may relate to other matters.For example, fields 740 d could include information relating to thedisplay (e.g., size and placement) of the advertisement. Field 740 ecould include information related to when the advertisement should bedisplayed. Field 740 f could include information related to the ratethat the advertiser is willing to pay to have the advertisementdisplayed. This rate information could include the weighting factorsmentioned in regard to FIG. 8 a. Field 740 g could include theadvertisement itself, such as information related to the color andlocation of pixels in an image advertisement.

FIG. 9 illustrates a process flow according to a first embodiment of thepresent invention for insertion and display of an advertisement bybrowser software. The process flow starts with the identification of adesired content by a reader and/or browser software user in step 5100.This can occur by any of a number of known mechanisms, includingreceiving a mouse click upon a hyperlink by a reader and/or browsersoftware user. A signal identifying the desired content is transmittedby the browser software and an advertisement is returned by way of anetwork such as network 620 of FIG. 7. This advertisement is received bythe browser software and inserted within the desired content in step5200. According to the present invention, the desired content need notbe transmitted over the network 620. For example, it could be stored ona computer readable medium at the home computer of the reader and/orbrowser software user. Once content is identified in step 5100, theprocess flow can proceed with step 5200 regardless of the origins of theidentified content. Thereafter, in step 5300, the content and insertedadvertisement are delivered to the consumer, commonly upon some displaydevice for illustrating electronic messages.

FIG. 10 illustrates a process flow according to a second embodiment ofthe present invention for insertion and display of an advertisement bybrowser software wherein the content demographic is also identified.This is performed in step 6200, wherein a demographic of the populationthat is likely to be reading the content identified in step 6100 is alsoidentified. Once the content demographic is identified, it can be usedin step 6300 to provide a targeted advertisement which, along with theidentified content, is delivered in step 6400.

FIG. 11 illustrates a process flow according to a third embodiment ofthe present invention for insertion and display of an advertisement bybrowser software wherein an advertiser is billed directly by thesupplier of the browser software (or the supplier of the database usedby the browser software) to identify a content demographic or anadvertisement for insertion within the content. Billing of theadvertiser is performed in step 7500, preferably after the delivery ofthe content with inserted advertisement to the reader/user of webbrowser. As illustrated in this figure, the content demographic isidentified in step 7200. This step 7200 is naturally not necessary forbilling the advertiser, but rather is included to indicate that eitherthe browser software supplier, or the entity that maintains one or moredatabases accessed by the browser software, can generate revenue.

FIG. 12 illustrates a process flow according to a fourth embodiment ofthe present invention for insertion and display of an advertisement bybrowser software, whereby the previously-discussed static and dynamicadvertisement delivery methods are further described. Step 8500illustrates one method of embodying the static delivery method wherebyan advertiser has prenegotiated a contract with the supplier of thebrowser software or the maintainer of a database accessed by the browsersoftware, such as an advertisement database system 610 of FIG. 7. Inthis case, the advertisement is selected directly from the advertisementdatabase system 610 of FIG. 7 after a particular content is accessedfrom, for example, a content database system 623 of FIG. 7. Naturally,both the content database system 623 and the advertisement databasesystem 610 of FIG. 7 can be operated by the same entity. Alternatively,if there has been no prenegotiated advertisement for the selectedcontent, a dynamic insertion that includes the search of pluralindividual advertiser database systems 650 and/or advertisement brokerdatabase systems 640 can be performed. The actual storage location of anadvertisement is not constrained by the time at which an advertisingrelationship was negotiated, but rather these examples are given toprovide one illustrative embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 13 illustrates an exemplary computer system 801 upon which, forexample, many of the database systems illustrated in FIG. 7 can beimplemented according to the present invention. For example, computersystem 801 can alternately form the advertisement database system 610,the content database system 623, the browser interaction site 630, theadvertisement database system 640, and/or the individual advertiserdatabase system 650 of FIG. 7. For this reason, the computer system 801will be described using unique reference numerals. When a part ofcomputer system 801 that is analogous to a part in another figure isdescribed, this will be explicitly stated in the text. Computer system801 includes a bus 803 or other communication mechanism forcommunicating information, and a processor 805 coupled with bus 803 forprocessing the information. Processor 805 can form any or all of theprocessors 611, 621, 631, 641, and/or 651 of FIG. 7. Computer system 801also includes a main memory 807, such as a random access memory (RAM) orother dynamic storage device (e.g., dynamic RAM (DRAM), static RAM(SRAM), synchronous DRAM (SDRAM), flash RAM), coupled to bus 803 forstoring information and instructions to be executed by processor 805. Inaddition, main memory 807 may be used for storing temporary variables orother intermediate information during execution of instructions to beexecuted by processor 805. Computer system 801 further includes a readonly memory (ROM) 809 or other static storage device (e.g., programmableROM (PROM), erasable PROM (EPROM), and electrically erasable PROM(EEPROM)) coupled to bus 803 for storing static information andinstructions for processor 805. A storage device 811, such as a magneticdisk or optical disk, is provided and coupled to bus 803 for storinginformation and instructions. Storage device 811 can contain any and/orall of the data storage tables 612 a, 612 b, 612 c, 612 d, 622 a, 622 b,642 a, 642 b, 652 a, and/or 652 b of FIG. 7.

The computer system 801 may also include special purpose logic devices(e.g., application specific integrated circuits (ASICs)) or configurablelogic devices (e.g., generic array of logic (GAL) or reprogrammablefield programmable gate arrays (FPGAs)). Other removable media devices(e.g., a compact disc, a tape, and a removable magneto-optical media) orfixed, high density media drives, may be added to the computer system801 using an appropriate device bus (e.g., a small computer systeminterface (SCSI) bus, an enhanced integrated device electronics (IDE)bus, or an ultra-direct memory access

(DMA) bus). Such removable media devices and fixed, high density mediadrives can also contain the data storage tables 612 a, 612 b, 612 c, 612d, 622 a, 622 b, 642 a, 642 b, 652 a, and/or 652 b of FIG. 7. Thecomputer system 801 may additionally include a compact disc reader, acompact disc reader-writer unit, or a compact disc juke box, each ofwhich may be connected to the same device bus or another device bus.

Computer system 801 may be coupled via bus 803 to a display 813, such asa cathode ray tube (CRT), for displaying information to a computer user.Display 813 can form a content display device 633 of FIG. 7. The display813 may be controlled by a display or graphics card. The computer systemincludes input devices, such as a keyboard 815 and a cursor control 817,for communicating information and command selections to processor 805.The keyboard 815 and/or a cursor control 817 can form a content requestdevice 632 of FIG. 7. The cursor control 817, for example, is a mouse, atrackball, or cursor direction keys for communicating directioninformation and command selections to processor 805 and for controllingcursor movement on the display 813.

The computer system 801 performs a portion or all of the processingsteps of the invention in response to processor 805 executing one ormore sequences of one or more instructions contained in a memory, suchas the main memory 807. Such instructions may be read into the mainmemory 807 from another computer readable medium, such as storage device811. One or more processors in a multi-processing arrangement may alsobe employed to execute the sequences of instructions contained in mainmemory 807. In alternative embodiments, hard-wired circuitry may be usedin place of or in combination with software instructions. Thus,embodiments are not limited to any specific combination of hardwarecircuitry and software.

As stated above, the system 801 includes at least one computer readablemedium or memory programmed according to the teachings of the inventionand for storing data structures, tables, records, or other datadescribed herein. Examples of computer readable media are compact discs,hard disks, floppy disks, tape, magneto-optical disks, PROMs (EPROM,EEPROM, Flash EPROM), DRAM, SRAM, SDRAM, etc. Stored on any one or on acombination of computer readable media, the present invention includessoftware for controlling the computer system 801, for driving a deviceor devices for implementing the invention, and for enabling the computersystem 801 to interact with a human user. Such software may include, butis not limited to, device drivers, operating systems, development tools,and applications software. Such computer readable media further includesthe computer program product of the present invention for performing allor a portion (if processing is distributed) of the processing performedin implementing the invention.

The computer code devices of the present invention may be anyinterpreted or executable code mechanism, including but not limited toscripts, interpreters, dynamic link libraries, Java classes, andcomplete executable programs. Moreover, parts of the processing of thepresent invention may be distributed for better performance,reliability, and/or cost.

The term “computer readable medium” as used herein refers to any mediumthat participates in providing instructions to processor 805 forexecution. A computer readable medium may take many forms, including butnot limited to, non-volatile media, volatile media, and transmissionmedia. Non-volatile media includes, for example, optical, magneticdisks, and magneto-optical disks, such as storage device 811. Volatilemedia includes dynamic memory, such as main memory 807. Transmissionmedia includes coaxial cables, copper wire and fiber optics, includingthe wires that comprise bus 803. Transmission media also may also takethe form of acoustic or light waves, such as those generated duringradio wave and infrared data communications.

Common forms of computer readable media include, for example, harddisks, floppy disks, tape, magneto-optical disks, PROMs (EPROM, EEPROM,Flash EPROM), DRAM, SRAM, SDRAM, or any other magnetic medium, compactdisks (e.g., CD-ROM), or any other optical medium, punch cards, papertape, or other physical medium with patterns of holes, a carrier wave(described below), or any other medium from which a computer can read.

Various forms of computer readable media may be involved in carrying outone or more sequences of one or more instructions to processor 805 forexecution. For example, the instructions may initially be carried on amagnetic disk of a remote computer. The remote computer can load theinstructions for implementing all or a portion of the present inventionremotely into a dynamic memory and send the instructions over atelephone line using a modem. A modem local to computer system 801 mayreceive the data on the telephone line and use an infrared transmitterto convert the data to an infrared signal. An infrared detector coupledto bus 803 can receive the data carried in the infrared signal and placethe data on bus 803. Bus 803 carries the data to main memory 807, fromwhich processor 805 retrieves and executes the instructions. Theinstructions received by main memory 807 may optionally be stored onstorage device 811 either before or after execution by processor 805.

Computer system 801 also includes a communication interface 819 coupledto bus 803. Communication interface 819 provides a two-way datacommunication coupling to a network link 821 that is connected to alocal network 823. For example, communication interface 819 may be anetwork interface card to attach to any packet switched local areanetwork (LAN). As another example, communication interface 819 may be anasymmetrical digital subscriber line (ADSL) card, an integrated servicesdigital network (ISDN) card or a modem to provide a data communicationconnection to a corresponding type of telephone line. Wireless links mayalso be implemented. In any such implementation, communication interface819 sends and receives electrical, electromagnetic or optical signalsthat carry digital data streams representing various types ofinformation. Network link 821 typically provides data communicationthrough one or more networks to other data devices. For example, networklink 821 may provide a connection to a computer through local network823 (e.g., a LAN) or through equipment operated by a service provider,which provides communication services through a communications network827. Communications network 827 can form network 620 of FIG. 7. In someembodiments, local network 823 and communications network 827 preferablyuse electrical, electromagnetic, or optical signals that carry digitaldata streams. The signals through the various networks and the signalson network link 821 and through communication interface 819, which carrythe digital data to and from computer system 801, are exemplary forms ofcarrier waves transporting the information. Computer system 801 cantransmit notifications and receive data, including program code, throughthe network(s), network link 821 and communication interface 819.

While particular embodiments of the present invention have beenillustrated and described, it will be appreciated that numerous changesand modifications will occur to those skilled in the art, and it isintended that the appended claims cover all those changes andmodifications which fall within the spirit and scope of the presentinvention.

Obviously numerous modifications and variations of the present inventionare possible in light of the above teachings. It is therefore to beunderstood that within the scope of the appended claims, the inventionmay be practiced otherwise than specifically described herein.

1. A method of displaying an advertisement within a particularelectronic content, comprising steps of: identifying said particularelectronic content; receiving said advertisement to be inserted withinsaid particular electronic content; inserting said advertisement intosaid particular electronic content, said particular electronic contentnow including said advertisement; and preparing said content includingsaid advertisement for display.